Nearly 40 percent of unemployed americans are millennials — not terribly surprising given that we’re for the most part the least qualified and experienced workers in the labor force. Yes it’s a staggering figure, however it’s consistent with trends over the past twenty odd years; 18 to 29 year olds are statistically more often unemployed.

What’s more relevant isn’t how many of us are unemployed, it’s the number of us that are in debt. It was trending this week that $1.2 trillion has amounted in college tuition debt; 40 million Americans owe tuition loans, with an average coming out to roughly $30,000 each for those respective debtors.

The beauty of college loans, in addition to making you feel subjected to the man your entire life, is that they also have the potential to kill your credit score…which will all but kill your chance of buying your own home and getting a mortgage

For you visual learners our there, here’s the picture that says a thousand, crappy and mostly four letter words.

Student-loan-debt

Perhaps the biggest drawback in all of this isn’t merely the tremendous debt graduates are facing, and the difficulty to acquire a home. The tragedy in the student debt crisis is that highly educated individuals, who paid six figures for a quality education, are going to feel inclined to take higher paying positions in the private sector, opposed to lower paying jobs in the public, perhaps even non-profit sector. If you make 40 grand a year, that entitles you to only pay $190 or so a month off your loans, which over 10 years covers $22,000 of the government funded loan. Where is that 80 grand going to come from that the government promised the academic institution it would handle accordingly?

Are we going to send 40 million people to jail?

Are we going to print 1 trillion dollars and pretend like its real money?

Are colleges going to shrug their shoulders and understand that these kinds of things happen and that they don’t mind digging into their billion dollar endowment coffers to make up the difference?

The answer to all of these is no, which is the scariest part of all. 

If there’s a lesson to this, and I’m being serious as a heart attack, do NOT attend school simply because you can’t find a job or you’re convincing yourself it’s a good “option to have.” That’s not only questionable in ambition, it’s going to bite you in the ass when you can’t get approved for a loan and the government begins to hound you even more for the thousands of dollars you owe them (after feeling the crunch from the “1 percent”). It’s not worth it and unless you know it’s worth it — if you’re not sure, find a more creative, determined way to build yourself a better future.

The numbers speak for themselves. This is a real issue.